Mike Portnoy on Metallica: Never Has Such a Great Band Made So Many Bad Albums

Prolific drummer Mike Portnoy recently guested on the Speak N’ Destroy podcast to talk all things Metallica. Though Portnoy praised Metallica’s earlier works, the drummer sliced up records like Lulu and St. Anger, saying that never has a huge, huge band had so many misses.

Portnoy has seen them all in his day, and he rightfully labels Metallica as the biggest metal band of all time. Unlike the Iron Maidens of the world, however, Metallica is also one of the most critically panned acts of the past 25 years.

“The Black Album and Master Of Puppets and Kill 'Em All, these are the greatest metal albums of all time, but they've also had such incredible misses as well. It's crazy. Never has such a huge, huge band also had so many. I mean, Lulu, oh my God. The fact that they made an album like that, or what they did with St. Anger, or, in my opinion, with Load and Reload albums. So they're not invincible. They're not like the Beatles where everything they touched was perfect and classic and is gold. They've had these missteps as well, but it just never seemed to stop them."

Portnoy continues, ”As much as I appreciated [St. Anger] and it got me back because of the spirit and the intention and I really got that, there's no question there's some really hard-to-listen-to stuff on that album. There were moments where I was, like, 'Oh my God! What are they fucking thinking?' But then there were other moments like, 'Oh, man! This is fucking great!' It was a really mixed album for me."

Despite the criticism Lars Ulrich has received as a drummer, Portnoy has been a longtime defender of the ‘Tallica skinsman, speaking about his “invaluable” contributions to the metal band.